For four years, a Spanish woman received a benefit from Social Security to support her brother, who is more than 65% disabled. The aid was recognized, but in 2023 the National Social Security Institute notified the brother’s new guardian and demanded the return of 15,430.20 euros, claiming that part of the amount had been paid unduly.
The notification triggered a review of the process and ended up giving rise to a legal dispute over the possibility of the administration claiming that amount.
Support that the law allows for dependent family members
According to the Spanish digital newspaper, Noticias Trabajo, the situation dates back to 2005. In that year, the woman began to receive an orphan’s pension with an additional supplement “per adult and disabled dependent child”, applied to her brother, Claudio. In 2006, he also formally requested the benefit for dependent children over 18 years of age with a disability greater than 65%, which was approved retroactively to April of the same year.
Although the name of the benefit is “por hijo a cargo” (child in charge), Spanish law allows this type of help to be granted to other family members who are economically dependent on the beneficiary, including adult siblings with disabilities. In this case, the woman was legally responsible for her brother’s care, so the help was granted in her name, but intended to guarantee Claudio’s support and care.
For more than 15 years, payments were made without any dispute. After the beneficiary’s death, the brother’s guardianship passed to another sister, who legally took over supervision. It was then, in November 2023, that Social Security began a review of the process and demanded the refund of the amount, alleging undue payments since June 2019.
The debt that time erased
The new guardian contested the decision, arguing that Social Security no longer had the right to claim the amount, since more than four years had passed since the benefit was recognized, the legal maximum period for demanding refunds. The case was initially considered by the Labor Court No. 2 of Ourense, which ruled in favor of the woman, considering the complaint out of time.
The INSS appealed, arguing that there had been an error in the application of the law and that the limitation period should run from the date on which the alleged irregularity was detected, and not from the recognition of the aid.
The Superior Court of Justice of Galicia confirmed the initial sentence. According to the ruling, “it is clear that more than four years had passed since the benefit was recognized, the date from which the prescriptive time must be counted”. The court emphasized that this limit exists “in the service of legal certainty”, preventing the administration from acting outside the defined period.
According to Noticias Trabajo, the Social Security action was considered time-barred and the appeal rejected. After 17 years without any review of the process, the court determined that the administration’s right to demand the return of the installment had expired, definitively closing the case.
Portugal: deadlines and differences
In Portugal the legal situation is not the same. The right to refund of unduly paid Social Security benefits expires, as a rule, after five years. This period is defined in the legislation that regulates the return of amounts paid in error and is confirmed by official Social Security information on refunds of amounts, and is also interpreted by the courts as a limit applicable to the amounts administratively required.
If the question arises in practice, for example about when the statute of limitations starts to run, from the recognition of the right, from the payment or from the notification to refund, the answer may vary depending on the legal framework and specific decisions of the courts.
In Portugal, recent legislative changes and rulings have clarified specific points, but the five-year rule continues to be the most frequent starting point in Social Security notifications and collection actions.
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